


next to me

by TripsH



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Drabbles, Fluff, M/M, some spoilers for most recent manga chapters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-07
Updated: 2015-03-07
Packaged: 2018-03-16 16:37:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3495386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TripsH/pseuds/TripsH
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From childhood to adulthood, they've always been together. Will always be together. </p><p>A collection of iwaoi drabbles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	next to me

**Author's Note:**

> These are all prompt fills originally posted on my [tumblr](http://araakits.tumblr.com). Since I had so many, I figured I'd compile them all and post them here 
> 
> Everything is mostly fluff (per the usual), but there's a little angst and some spoilers for the most recent manga chapters as well. 
> 
> Title is taken from [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=564xDWyxmD8) by Sleeping At Last, my go-to band whenever I think of/write iwaoi

**_I. Things you said that I wasn’t meant to hear_ **

****

Oikawa barely lifts his head when Iwaizumi walks into class, and stops in front of his desk on the way to his own. He looks at his best friend for a brief moment, before dropping his head back down against the smooth surface and shutting his eyes once more. “Morning, Iwa-chan.”  
   
Iwaizumi, a look of simultaneous amusement and concern in his eyes, takes his seat, kicking at the back of Oikawa’s chair lightly to draw his attention. “Morning. Problem?”  
   
“No, I just like laying on my desk, don’t worry.” Despite the dismissive wave of his hand, there’s a slight smile pulling at his lips, and for a moment he forgets that he had been upset in the first place.  
   
Oikawa knows Iwaizumi can tell something is wrong, is bothering him—he always can—but Iwaizumi doesn’t say anything about it, just rests his chin in his palm, eyes focused on Oikawa. “You’re gonna have a mark on your forehead, stupid.”  
   
With a slight groan, he sits upright again, turning in his seat and resting his head in his arms on Iwaizumi’s desk instead, finally looking at him for the first time all morning. “There. Happy?”  
   
Iwaizumi shrugs, smiling slightly as he reaches forward with his free hand, poking at Oikawa’s forehead. “You have a red mark there.”  
   
Oikawa’s lip juts out in a pout as he playfully swats Iwaizumi’s hand away. “Don’t make it worse, Iwa-chan!”  
   
Their soft laughter is the only thought on his mind for a moment, and it’s hard to believe that he had even been feeling bad in the first place when everything feels so comfortable and easy now.  
   
After a moment, though, Iwaizumi looks serious again. “Everything okay? Weren’t you heading to school early to meet with your girlfriend?”  
   
Oikawa laughs, thinking back to when he had met with her this morning before classes just like she had asked, only to have her break up with him almost immediately upon his arrival.  
   
“She broke up with me.”  
   
“Oh.” The look on Iwaizumi’s face, although there only briefly, is hard for him to place. He’s not really sure how to describe it.  
   
Before Iwaizumi can say anything more, Oikawa continues, offhandedly, “She said I’m too absorbed in volleyball. Didn’t spend enough time with her, I guess. It’s not a big deal, though. We only went out—if you can even call it that—for a few weeks anyway. I’m fine.”  
   
Iwaizumi frowns. “Don’t let it bother you, okay? If she can’t understand that that’s what you love, then it probably wouldn’t have worked out in the end anyway.”  
   
“I know.”  
   
It doesn’t  _really_  bother him, but it still kind of stings a little bit, and his next words just end up slipping out. “Besides, it’s not like anyone would want to be stuck with me forever anyway.”  
   
The hand Iwaizumi had been resting his cheek against is suddenly resting on Oikawa’s arm, the slight angry look in his eyes punctuated with a squeeze. “Don’t talk like that.”  
   
“But—”  
   
Before he can say any more, the teacher walks into the room, instructing them to face the front and take out their textbooks.  
   
Iwaizumi hesitates before pulling his hand away, looking down at his desk as he mutters something quietly.  
   
Halfway between facing Iwaizumi’s desk and the front, Oikawa falters when he hears the words.  
   
_“I want to.”_  
   
“Iwa-chan, what did you—?”  
   
“It’s nothing.” Iwaizumi refuses to meet his eyes, cheeks a little red.  
   
He wants to say more, but settles for a simple smile at Iwaizumi, before turning to face the front since the teacher had called him out on it. They can talk later, he decides, tapping his pencil against his notebook happily, slowly forgetting that he had begun the day feeling upset.

 

***

 

**_II. Things you said when you were crying_ **

****

“It’s okay.”  
   
Oikawa wipes the tears on his own face away with the sleeve of his jacket, looking over to Iwaizumi. They’re walking home after the match, after another loss, the tears finally falling now that they’re alone and realize that this was it. This was their last chance and they couldn’t—  
   
“Iwa-chan?” Oikawa’s breath hitches when Iwaizumi’s fingers curl around his wrist, pulling them both to a stop. “Are you—?”  
   
The tears on Iwaizumi’s face are visible to him now that they’re facing each other. Even more so when Iwaizumi’s hand cups Oikawa’s cheek gently, fingers stroking his hair as he leans forward, pressing their foreheads together.  
   
“It’s okay,” Iwaizumi murmurs again. “Tooru, it’s—”  
   
There are hot tears slipping down his own cheeks, sobs suppressed since the end of the match that he’s wanted to let free. But now, now all he finds himself doing is reaching up, brushing his fingers over Iwaizumi’s cheeks, wiping away the tears. “Hajime…”  
   
Somehow, their arms end up around each other, and they probably look stupid standing in the middle of the sidewalk hugging each other, crying. Not moving, just standing stationary here, with each other, as if that will bring them some sort of comfort.  
   
(It does. No matter how much it hurts, no matter how hurt or upset or disappointed they are, they’ll get through it. They always do.)  
   
Right now, it feels like the world—their world—is ending. But it will be okay. In the end, _they’ll_  be okay.

 

***

 

**_III. Things you said when I was crying_ **

 

 

“I told you not to run,” Iwaizumi says, leaning over Oikawa to look at the fresh cut on his knee, his eyes are maybe a little wide and he looks worried as he points at it. “You’re bleeding…”  
   
Their families, always close friends, had decided to take a vacation together that summer, a camping trip. As soon as they arrived, the two six year old friends had wandered off to explore, promising not to go too far. It was fun, until Oikawa had tripped over a stray tree branch and fell, his knee stinging in pain.  
   
He’s already been trying so hard to hold back his tears after falling, biting his quivering lip and sniffling, but when he looks down at his knee at the mention of blood, tears finally begin to fall.  
   
“I’m gonna die!” he wails, remembering how badly it hurt when he fell running to the park earlier in the summer and thinking how this is much, much worse. “Iwa-chan, I don’t wanna die!”  
   
Iwaizumi kneels next to him, resting a hand on his arm. “You’re not gonna die, it’s just a cut.” It sounds reassuring, but he looks worried and unsure of what to do, which does nothing to calm Oikawa down.  
   
“This is it, Iwa-chan! This is the end!” He tries to hold back tears, but it hurts. “You can have my alien figure a-and my—”  
   
“You’re not going to die,” Iwaizumi repeats, firmer this time and grabs onto Oikawa’s shoulders. “Let’s go back, mom has bandaids.”  
   
“O-okay,” Oikawa murmurs, wiping tears from his eyes and sniffling. “C-can you carry me? Please, Iwa-chan?”  
   
Normally, Iwaizumi complains about carrying him for various reasons— _“it’s too hot out!”_ and  _“you’re heavy!”_  being the most common—and he’ll pinch Oikawa or try to shake him off when he jumps on Iwaizumi’s back unexpectedly. But today is different. Today, Iwaizumi doesn’t say no or complain or protest (even though when he does he’ll still always end up carrying Oikawa anyway) and only murmurs a simple “Okay.”  
   
So Oikawa climbs on, clinging onto Iwaizumi’s neck tightly, burying his face in his shirt and trying not to cry anymore as they head back to their families.   
   
“It’s okay,” Iwaizumi says after a few moments of listening to Oikawa’s sniffling. “You’re fine.”  
   
And as Oikawa clings onto him tightly, feels better and safer with Iwaizumi here, he thinks that maybe he will be.

 

***

 

**_IV. Things you said that I wish you hadn’t_ **

****

“Next year… I’m not going.”  
   
“Hm?” Oikawa hums spinning the volleyball in his hands absentmindedly. “Iwa-chan, what are you talking about?”  
   
Iwaizumi looks at him with a sort of intensity Oikawa hasn’t seen before, one that he can’t quite place even though he knows his friend so well—better than anyone. “I’m not going to the same university as you. There’s another school that I think—”  
   
Oikawa doesn’t hear the rest, doesn’t want to, wishes that they are words Iwaizumi didn’t utter in the first place.  
   
The ball nearly falls out of his hands at the utterance of the sudden words, but he quickly regains his composure, grips the ball tightly—even tighter than before.  _Breathe._  
   
“What do you mean?”    
   
Iwaizumi takes a step forward, reaches out like he wants to touch Oikawa, but retracts his hand after a moment. “I know we talked about it… about going to the same university next year, but…”  
   
“But what?” Oikawa murmurs softly, thinking back to one day at the beginning of their third year, when tired of doing homework, he had rolled onto his stomach, chin propped on his hands as he looked at Iwaizumi.  
   
(“We’ll always be together, right?” Oikawa had asked, voice soft, a little unsteady as he thought about—really thought about the possibility of everything changing next year.  
   
Iwaizumi had flicked his forehead before resting a hand in his hair, fingers curling in it. “Don’t be stupid. Of course we will.”)  
   
The possibility of not being together, by each other’s sides, scares him. Really scares him.  
   
Before Iwaizumi can respond, though, Oikawa waves his hand dismissively. “It’s fine, Hajime. I get it. You don’t have to explain it to me.”  
   
Suddenly promises made in childhood, with the entwining of their fingers and smiles shared, promises only reaffirmed as they grew older, stronger, don’t feel the same.  
   
“Tooru.”  
   
Oikawa wants to walk away, wants to leave and deal with this later. To cover up how he feels with a perfect mask and run from it.  
   
But Iwaizumi can always see through that, always breaks down the walls he puts up. Is always by his side despite Oikawa trying to retreat within himself.   
   
“Tooru.” Iwaizumi grabs his hand, entwines their fingers together.  
   
“What?” Oikawa bites his lip, waiting for a response.            
   
“This doesn’t change anything, okay? I’m still always going to be right here. We’re still going to be together.”  
   
And when Oikawa looks down at his feet, sniffling slightly but smiling too—a real one—he thinks that maybe distance isn’t something to worry about. Not for them, anyway.  
   
Promises—their promises—don’t break so easily after all.

 

***

**_V. Things you said at 1 am_ **

****

“Iwa-chan?”  
   
Iwaizumi opens his eyes, Oikawa laying on his chest,lips curled into a soft smile, the first sight he’s met with, the bright red numbers of the clock on the bedside table reading 1:00 am, the second. “Hm?”  
   
Tired, content, after they had finished, Iwaizumi had pulled Oikawa to his chest, lips brushing against his forehead as he lazily ran a hand up and down his back as they drifted off to sleep. He expected Oikawa to be asleep by now, not—  
   
“I love you.” Oikawa leans forward, the smile still on his lips as he presses a lazy but gentle kiss to Iwaizumi’s mouth.  
   
Iwaizumi’s grip around him tightens as he gives him an affectionate squeeze, and almost like it’s automatic—a motion done so many times that his muscles have committed it to memory—he reaches forward with his free hand, brushing Oikawa’s sweaty bangs off his forehead.  
   
“I love you too.”

***

 

**_VI. Things you said after it was over_ **

****

Losing is a horrible feeling, a possibility Iwaizumi has prepared himself for, but a crushing reality that is inescapable now that the match really is over.  
   
Everything after that moment moves so quickly, is kind of a blur and almost doesn’t feel real. He remembers tears burning in his eyes, slipping down his cheeks as he looked to the floor in anger, frustration, sadness; remembers Oikawa clapping a hand onto his back, and wrapping an arm around his shoulder in a moment of comfort, Hanamaki and Matsukawa doing the same; remembers leaving the gym, their last time together as a team, an almost uncharacteristic heavy silence among them only broken by the sound of their footsteps and a few sniffles from the team—namely, Kindaichi.  
   
Oikawa had turned to face the rest of them, clapping his hands together before speaking some encouraging words to them, promising to take them all out to eat since they worked so hard.  
   
(He’s not crying, but Iwaizumi can see the stiffness of his back, the way his teeth scrape across his bottom lip when he turns away after speaking, and knows that maybe not right now, but later, the tears will come.)  
   
After everyone separates to get ready to leave, Iwaizumi moving to do the same, Oikawa reaches out and grips his wrist, pulling him back.  
   
“Iwa-chan?”  
   
He swallows, for once not knowing what to say. The hope that they wouldn’t have to have this conversation, to face each other and deal with this being the last time they ever played together had been so overpowering that finding words now is a little difficult. “Yeah?”  
   
“It’s fine.” Oikawa’s voice, although a little shaky, sounds sure, determined. Reassuring. “It’s going to be fine.”  
   
Iwaizumi can feel the tears pricking at the corners of his eyes again, and reaches up to swipe them away with the back of his hand as some slip out. He’s not going to cry again. Not right now.  
   
“Yeah… yeah, I know.”  
   
There’s a lot more they can say, a lot more they will say when it’s all sunk in a little more, when they’re alone later. But for now, Oikawa’s words, are enough, a reassurance he had needed to hear.  
   
When Oikawa leans forward, wrapping his arms around Iwaizumi in a tight, but comforting hug, he whispers something else, a shared belief that’s been implied for so long, now a certainty when put into words.  
   
“ _We’ll_ be fine.”  
   
They will. They always are. 

 

***

 

**_VII. Things you said when we were the happiest we ever were_ **

****

For a moment after he asks, there is silence. Complete and utter silence, not uncomfortable, but it still makes his heart race, his hands sweat a little.  
   
“Tooru—”  
   
If Iwaizumi’s reflexes weren’t as good as they are, if he wasn’t so used to being nearly tackled by Oikawa now after over twenty years of being by each other’s sides, he probably would have fallen backwards onto the ground when Oikawa launched himself into his arms.  
   
“I love you.” Oikawa squeezes Iwaizumi tightly, laughing breathlessly. “I love you so much, Hajime.”  
   
Iwaizumi’s arms settle around Oikawa, one hand tangled in the back of his shirt, the other still tightly clutching the small box in his hand.  
   
Really, he should have expected something like this, he thinks, lips upturned into a fond smile when Oikawa buries his head in the crook of Iwaizumi’s neck, and he can feel a few tears fall on the exposed skin there. Of course Oikawa would cry.  _Of course he would._  
   
“Is this a yes?” Iwaizumi asks with a laugh, but still there’s a slight feeling of nervousness in his stomach, the fear the Oikawa won’t want to—  
   
“Of course it’s a yes!” Oikawa smiles, pulling back from the embrace and looking down at the box in Iwaizumi’s hands, at the ring inside of it. There’s a happy smile on his face, tears in his eyes. “It’s always been yes.”  
   
They’re twenty-four when Iwaizumi slides that ring—a simple, silver band—onto Oikawa’s finger, when they make a promise of forever. And when Oikawa does tackle him to the ground after that, kissing him until he’s breathless, he thinks that he couldn’t be any happier than he is in this one moment, together.   

 

***

 

**_VIII. Things you said when we were on top of the world_ **

****

“Invincible.”  
   
Iwaizumi looks up from his spot on the locker room’s bench, where he had been tying his shoes a moment before. “What?”  
   
Oikawa smiles, straightening up from stretching his leg. “That night in junior high, I said I felt invincible. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten, Iwa-chan.”  
   
He hasn’t. Of course he hasn’t. He knows exactly what Oikawa means, the instance he’s referring to. It’s a memory Iwaizumi looks back on with a certain fondness, a fondness accompanied with knowing that the words spoken firmly through chapped lips while they were alone in the gym that night, his fingers curled in the fabric of Oikawa’s shirt, trying to pull him back to a steadier and stable place, have made so much of an impact as they’ve moved forward, together.  
   
“I haven’t forgotten, dumbass.” With a breath, he stands, straightening the brand new and still foreign-feeling uniform a bit before he closes the short distance between them, hand resting on Oikawa’s shoulder. “Why are you bringing it up now, though?”  
   
Oikawa leans in, quickly and all at once, brushing his lips against Iwaizumi’s for a brief moment that’s over nearly as quickly as it happened, yet still is unforgettable. “Because right now I feel invincible.”  
   
Iwaizumi smiles as he squeezes Oikawa’s shoulder gently before he pulls back, looking toward the door, loud cheers from the crowd already audible even from the secluded locker room. “You ready?”  
   
He holds his hand out for a high five, Oikawa’s lips upturned into a bright smile as he slaps his hand. “Of course.”  
   
_Invincible,_ Iwaizumi thinks when he catches Oikawa’s hand right before they head out, squeezing it. As long as they have each other, they are.  
   
They always have been, he finally decides as they walk toward the court, the red and white jerseys of Japan’s national team on their backs.


End file.
